Retribution in the Perfect Manner
by Take.It.Over
Summary: A mysterious corporation. Two murders. A survivor. A killer. A witness. All of them connect, yet not everybody has the full story, except for one. The killer. When the survivor goes out for revenge, he and the witness must work together to unravel a plot that has been decades in the making, and find the real killers.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: For stopcallingmescary on Tumblr. Prompt: DenNor angst.**

 **And I've been wanting to do a superhero AU for a looooonnnnggg time. Exciting!**

* * *

 _Chapter 1: Avianna_

* * *

Lukas stood atop the roof, gazing down at the city below him, trying to sense any disturbances. It was his usual routine; he was just laid off from his job as a secretary to some asshole in the computer business. He had been doing a good job, but his boss decided to lay him off for the simple reason that he wasn't female. Apparently, he had wanted a secretary with benefits.

In conclusion, Lukas wasn't too disappointed that he was laid off, in the end. He just hoped the poor female that was chosen after him didn't suffer some forced relationship. His savings would keep him well off for awhile, so in the meantime, to combat his anger towards the assholishness that was his ex-boss, Lukas went back into crimefighting.

During his brief stint at community college, he would take online classes by day, study by night, and anytime between go out and fight the jerks of the world. It was only made easier by the fact that he was, in fact, a super-powered mutant, son of two other super-powered mutants who were still unaware that their oldest son had abilities and knew about their double lives.

A slight pulse in his mind brought his attention to a section of the city a mile away. He couldn't quite tell what was happening, but it was large enough to gather a small crowd of onlookers. Quickly going down the fire escape, he got on his motorcycle and rushed to the scene.

It was in an alleyway on a street that ended in construction, so the only people that hung around there tended to be gangsters and the homeless. Parking his bike around the corner, Lukas silently walked up to the scene, where several of the homeless were watching a fight, and stood back in the shadows to watch.

A man, crazy wild hair and a nearly insane looking grin on his face was wielding a real large axe, while the other person across from him, a small, blonde girl simply stood there, a passive look on her face. There were cracks in the ground. The girl, who looked around 17, seemed unharmed, but the wild-haired man had bruises and was favoring his left leg.

"Are you going to attack me again?" The girl said, almost bored sounding. "Clearly your axe isn't as strong as you thought it was." She looked around at all the gathered people. "And you realize there are Normals here?"

The man laughed. "Of course! But they don't care! Who'll believe them anyways." He hefted the axe, which seemed to be glowing slightly and glared right at the girl. "Besides, I promised him I would defeat you."

The girl tipped her head to the side, raising a pale eyebrow. "What a terrible promise. If he asked it of you, then surely he wanted you in the afterlife with him quickly, because I intend to kill you."

Suddenly, she held her hand up, and a large, golden circle with scrawling letters that glowed and shifted appeared, and went straight for the man with the axe. In response, he quickly stabbed the axe's front into it. He seemed strained, as if the circle was pushing against his weapon, but then the axe glowed brighter and the magic circle shattered and disappeared.

The homeless people around Lukas gasped and whispered among themselves. Lukas, however, was amazed. There were superpowered people, out in the open, fighting each other. So far, in his twenty two years of life, he hadn't met any others like him, except for his family, of course.

Now the axe man was running towards the girl, who simply held out her hand towards him again and swiped to the right, a golden circle hitting the man full-force on his left and sending him flying into the brick building at the end of the alley.

"You're an idiot." She commented walking slowly up to the man, who wasn't moving. Lukas crept closer to get a better view. He figured he should interfere before the girl actually killed the man, but his curiosity and fascination at their abilities constrained him for now.

The girl got closer and leaned down, picking up the axe. It had lost it's glow, and looked smaller. She pointed it at the fallen man. "Berwald was an idiot to go up against me. Like you, he was avenging the death of a loved one. But you know that. Just like your brother, you're stupid and impulsive. I told the lot of you to leave me alone." She settled the axe on the ground, still pointing towards his face as he started to move.

"Tino didn't mean t-" She smacked his head with the flat of the axe blade.

"I don't care!" She hissed. "My life was ruined, my parents kicked me out, and I have them hunting me now. Whether he meant it or not doesn't matter." She threw the axe down besides the man, a sudden look of sympathy on her face. "But I do regret their deaths."

She turned and walked towards one of the grungy brick walls and pressed a hand up against it. A golden circle extended out of her hand until it looked large enough for somebody to walk through. Turning back around, her expression hardened. "Don't come after me again, Matthias." She walked through the circle and disappeared, the circle fading out only a second later.

The man, Matthias, sat up and groaned, rubbing his head where the girl smacked him. Scooting over, he grabbed the axe, the glow returning. It suddenly disappeared in a flash of red light and he stood up.

"Shoo." He said tiredly, towards the homeless observers. They grumbled for a bit, but after a few minutes, the only ones left in the alleyway was Lukas and Matthias.

Matthias was now sitting against the brick wall, head resting back against it and his eyes closed.

"Excuse me?" Lukas said cooly towards the man, after stepping further into the alley.

The man groaned and opened his eyes, taking a second to focus on Lukas in front of him.

"Who are you?" He looked him up and down. "Not one of the homeless people. Are you in one of the gangs?"

Lukas shook his head. "I just saw you use...an unusual ability."

Matthias looked confused for a second. "Unusual ability? I guess…if you're not homeless or one of the gangs," He shifted on the ground uncomfortably, rubbing his head. "The are you police or something? I swear, I'm innocent."

"I've never met another person with abilities." Lukas said bluntly. The man likely had a concussion, and kept squinting at him.

"Ah, so you're a freak too?" He laughed weakly.

"Is that what we're called?" Lukas responded. "Who was that girl?"

At that, Matthias paused, fiddling with a shoelace. "Her name was Avianna...she also has powers." He seemed reluctant to say much else, so Lukas dropped it.

"You look like you took a beating." He walked closer to Matthias. "Either I take you to the hospital or I can patch you up at my house." Lukas' powers told him this man wasn't going to harm him and shouldn't be much trouble. Besides, Lukas could defend himself if the other man started going crazy with the axe all of a sudden in his apartment.

Matthias looked startled. "How would I explain all of this to a hospital?" He indicated his various injuries. He then looked back up, questioningly. "You'd be okay helping me."

Lukas shrugged. "Well you won't go to a hospital. And I would like the story of you and that girl as payment." Matthias considered it for a second, and then nodded, accepting Lukas' help to stand up. They then rode together back to Lukas' apartment.

* * *

"It all started when Tino met her at his college campus." Matthias started, as he held an ice pack to his head. "Avianna, I mean. She's like, 17, but skipped a grade and got into college early." Lukas sat down on the couch opposite of Matthias, listening. "There was this organization in that city, which is only about 40 miles from here, that employed people with powers to do weird and illegal stuff for them. They had convinced Avianna into it after they saw her use her powers accidentally one day. Anyway, Tino met her in his science class. They were partnered up for a project or something. Long story short, he saw her use her powers once and he went sort of crazy, telling all sorts of people, including one of the informants to the organization she was forced to work for. They have a very strict policy that nobody knows about them, and so they set to hunt down Avianna, seeing her as a risk to their secrecy.

"Even worse, her parents found out about her powers and kicked her out. Accidentally, as I heard it from her, and purposefully, as I heard from Berwald, she killed Tino, who was my brother's boyfriend." He paused, turning the ice pack over and looking down at Lukas' coffee table. "Berwald, my brother, was so angry he went to hunt her down. His powers were like, super freakish strength. In the end, he died too, but I was there. I know she did it on purpose."

As Matthias finished, he looked irritated and angry.

"So," Lukas said carefully. "A teenager murdered your brother and his boyfriend, and she's being hunted by a...criminal organization."

Matthias flinched slightly, but nodded. "Basically."

There was silence for a few minutes. From what Lukas could gather from the story, the girl had her life ruined, but became a murder. Now Matthias was out for total revenge, which would result in his label as a murder, as well. He decided that he would go along with Matthias, who clearly was still going to go after the girl, and make sure he didn't kill her, but make sure she paid somehow.

"I'll help you look for her." Lukas said, startling Matthias.

"What?" The other gave Lukas an incredulous look. "Help me get revenge? Why?"

"No, I'm going to help you look for her. But I won't allow either of you to kill each other. But, she needs to be punished. I can help with that."

Matthias just stared at him for a second, trying to convince himself to argue. "Fine," He finally grumbled. "But she had better get a good punishment."

Lukas nodded. "That's one of my specialties."


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: History Part 1_

* * *

 **7 YEARS AGO**

The Hawthorne Company specialized in selling custom orders of windows to various clients around the world. Their fame was not widely known, however, due to their high profile clientele. Only the rich had the money to buy the works of art Hawthorne produced, which could be anything from stained glass to a large bay window, all hand made by only 20 artists and 20 carpenters in their only headquarters, which was about 40 miles away from many things, including a college they sometimes partnered with, sending architectural, artistic, and carpentry students out to study the workings of the company.

However, The Hawthorne Company did not just sell windows. They also led an underground organization forcing superpowered children, teenagers, and adults do do various tasks for them, depending on what their power was. Some came willingly, but other candidates refused or were too young to make the decision, and the Company would coerce them into joining.

Every six months the top three executives of the company, the only ones besides the Enforcers and Recruiters to know about the company's double agenda, would meet to discuss potential candidates for the company. Usually they looked for teenagers or young adults, though it was good to have older ones as well.

At this particular meeting Anazi Tarvitz, the CEO of Hawthorne sat at the head of the small table, looking at several monitors, the other two exectutives sitting on either side of her. The room was dark, but the screens were bright. The man on her right, Mark Barnes, was their "finder", finding candidates and proposing them to Anazi and the other executive, Clarissa Henkes. Barnes was hunched over his computer, mumbling to himself. After a few minutes of impatient waiting, Anazi finally snapped at him, "Are you ready yet, Barnes?"

Flinching hard, Barnes stammered out a "y-yes ma'am" and pressed a button on his computer, the monitors on the wall flickering and pulling up two pictures, one of a young girl, no older than 10, and a woman around 30.

"These were the only candidates I was able to find," Barnes said nervously. "Avianna Steele and Linda Richardson."

Clarissa Henkes tapped the table. "Why is the one so young? Is that her current age?"

Barnes nodded. "She's 10 years old, but has already shown a very unique and powerful ability. It was caught on camera last month, but I was able to copy the files before erasing them from the system…" He tapped a few more keys on his laptop, another window popping up in front of Avianna's profile. A grainy video started playing.

It was in a parking lot during the day, and the girl stood with a woman, presumably her mother, and a boy a few years older than her, helping put groceries into the back of their car. Soon, Avianna took the cart and was wheeling it to one of the cart returns, when suddenly a car started backing out of the parking place towards her. The video flickered slightly, and a huge circle of energy, or something, appeared between the girl and the car, stopping the machine completely, leaving Avianna unharmed. Her mother and the boy came running at her, and the video cut off. Barnes pulled Avianna's profile and picture back onto the screen along with the other woman's, and waited for the CEO's opinion.

"Magic circles?" Anazi questioned. "And very strong too. Was all the evidence wiped up?"

Barnes nodded. "The ones in the car didn't see the circle; apparently they had panicked when they saw Avianna behind and missed it. The girl's mother and brother, however, both have abilities of their own, but this was the first time she showed any indication of having one herself."

Anazi thought silently. "It would be nice to get her...however, she's too young. And I doubt her guardians would take kindly to us using her, since she can't sneak off on her own quite yet."

"We should keep her in mind though," Clarissa commented. "We can keep tabs on her over the years."

"Agreed. Now what about the other?"

* * *

 **3 YEARS AGO**

Avianna Steele nervously walked into the principal's office. She'd never been called up before, and barely knew what the principal even looked like. Trying to tell herself she did nothing wrong, she tapped on the door and went in at the "come in".

Inside there was a desk with three comfortable chairs in front of it, but not much else. There were two adults sitting in two of the chairs, one a younger woman in her late 20s, with dark hair and skin, dressed formally and neatly. The other, a man around 50, sat next to her, dressed more casually, though he had a tie on. The principal, , smiled at Avianna as she walked in.

"Sit down, Miss Steele. These two want to speak to you about a great opportunity."

She nodded and quickly sat down, hugging her backpack in front of her, sitting as far from the man on her left as possible.

The woman leaned forward and smiled thinly at Avianna. "Hello, I'm . This is ," She indicated to the man next to her, who nodded. "We want to talk to you about an apprenticeship program at our company."

"Apprenticeship?"

smiled even wider. "It's great! They come from Hawthorne Company, who sells windows. They want you to go and help them with new technical upgrades."

"You would simply give us suggestions, and help out a little," said. "Just for an hour or two after school, and the company is only a minute away from here. We would personally give you transportation there, and to your home, if needed."

Avianna was silent for a bit. She'd heard of the Hawthorne Company; they were right by her house, but she didn't know they sold windows.

"Did you ask my parents? I can't just do stuff without telling them," She asked, trying to sound confident. "And why do you want me?"

"Your father came in today and signed a paper approving it," spoke up, taking a paper off of the principal's desk and handing it to her. She took it and looked it over. The principal, , and her father all signed it. The only signature missing was her's. It basically said that she would work and learn for them for an hour everyday, and get transportation from school, and transportation home if her parents requested it. She handed it back and replaced it on the desk.

"We ask for recommendations from high schools all around the city of students in various fields," said. "Some help us with the windows, others learn about being business owners. We were told you were excellent with technology, and we just so happen to be upgrading some of our old computers and wiring throughout the facility. You would get volunteer and apprenticeship hours, and not to mention a lot of experience."

"So, just for an hour everyday? I have a lot of homework." And she did, with four pre/ap classes everyday and a few electives with homework.

nodded. "So, will you do it?" She was staring at Avianna intensely, as if daring her to say no.

"Um, sure. I'll do it." She was handed a pen and she signed her name on the paper.

"Great!" exclaimed, taking the paper and skimming over it. "We can start next week. You don't need to bring anything special, but if you want to change into more comfortable clothes after school that's fine!" Both her and got up, said goodbye to the principal, and left.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Spy

* * *

"Wake up," Lukas threw a pillow at the man sleeping on his couch. He had taken pity on Matthias, who had complained of a huge headache and let him stay. However, it was now morning and Lukas wanted to find the girl and get everything over with.

He wasn't quite sure why he had gotten himself involved in everything. Was he bored? Maybe the entire situation seemed a bit strange? Whatever it was, Lukas had just stuck himself in the middle of it. He threw another one, but the man just continued to snore. Frowning slightly, Lukas leaned over and tapped a finger to the side of Matthias' head. He startled awake, arms flailing, causing Lukas to back away quickly to avoid getting hit.

Once Matthias had calmed down, he looked over at Lukas, eyes wide. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Lukas asked, picking up his pillows and arranging them on the smaller couch neatly.

"You, like, yelled in my head or something." He rubbed his forehead. "And now my head hurts again."

"I didn't yell in your head." Lukas replied, heading towards the kitchen. "What do you want for breakfast?"

Matthias obviously wasn't going to let go. "What's your power? I mean, you already saw mine. What exactly did you just do to wake me up?" He leaned over the counter, looking at Lukas expectantly, who just sighed.

"I can control other people's minds, to a certain extent. And sense things." He turned to the cabinet and pulled out bread, placing several slices into the toaster. "Not quite as flashy as yours."

Matthias grinned. "I can summon any weapon, but I like the axe the best!" He sat down at the bar and watched Lukas get out two cups. "You have any family?"

Lukas paused for a second, trying to read Matthias' intentions. All he got was mild curiosity and a carefree attitude, which, this early in the morning, was too much. He glared at the other man and handed him a cup of water.

"Why do you want to know?"

Matthias shrugged. "Well, since we're going to be finding Avianna together I thought we could get to know each other. And you also know a lot about my family-" He stopped suddenly, staring at Lukas.

"What?" He demanded, prepared to throw his cup if Matthias tried to kill him or something. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Why did I tell you all of that? I barely know you! Did you use your mind control on me last night?"

The toaster pinged, and Lukas retrieved the toast, placing them on two plates and bringing it to Matthias, who started eating it plain, still expectantly looking to Lukas for an answer. Lukas got out jam and put in on his toast, still standing at his counter, facing Matthias.

"A little bit," He said, unregrettably, ignoring Matthias' pout. "I needed to know what was going on and you seemed a bit...unwilling. I also convinced you to let me help and to not kill the girl."

Matthias looked slightly horrified. "Don't do that anymore! Please?"

Lukas rolled his eyes. "No promises." Ignoring the other's protests, Lukas joined him at the bar and silently started eating his toast. They continued the silence for a few more minutes, until Lukas broke it.

"My brother is 17 and lives with my parents. My brother also inherited abilities from my mother. I moved out to go to college when I was 18. I never got along with my parents much, but I call my brother often."

"But when you met me, you said I was the first one like you you'd met."

Lukas tapped the bar. "I don't count them. Their powers aren't all that...noticeable. My brother can 'talk' to animals, and my mother is a human lie detector. Mine, though...it was hard to conceal what I could do. Sometimes I joked and the person would actually do it."

"It must have sucked growing up not being able to lie." Matthias laughed. "You wouldn't be able to do anything!"

"Not if you are a good child," Lukas huffed. "My brother and I were perfectly well behaved."

Now Matthias rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you never wanted to lie."

"Well, I tried it once. It didn't work."

They finished their breakfast and headed back to the living room. "You can use my shower if you want." Lukas offered, making it obvious he should. "I'll lend you some clothes that might fit."

Matthias ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I need a shower." He got up, Lukas watching him the whole way.

* * *

Emil nervously walked through the doors, his puffin following along behind him, gaining some stares from the workers around him, but he just gripped the strap of his backpack tighter and walked up to the front desk, the puffin settling on it beside him.

The secretary looked up, "How can I help you?" She glanced over at the bird. "That bird better not make a mess."

"Oh no, he won't." Emil glared at the bird, who just tipped his head innocently in return. He rolled his eyes. "I'm here to see…" He glanced at the card in his hands. "Um... ?" He gave the secretary the card. She took it and glanced at him sharply.

"Yes, I'll call to her office. Have a seat." She picked up the phone on her desk as Emil went to sit down. He took out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He had texted Lukas at least three times, but he hadn't responded. Usually his brother was good at returning texts quickly.

A few minutes later, the secretary called Emil back up, a guard waiting for him.

"It's just so you don't get lost," She reassured him. "It's easy to get lost in here."

Emil nodded and quietly followed the guard. It was true, there were a lot of corridors they went down, a few flights of stairs, and several locked doors. The further they went, the more nervous Emil became, but told him some jokes to calm him down. Finally, they reached their destination. A single door at the end of a long, brightly lit hallway, lined with track lighting and small water fountains built into the walls. The guard knocked on the door three times, and then swiped his card, the doors sliding open to reveal a table facing several monitors, all of which were off.

The chair closest to them held the only person in the room, who Emil assumed was the Tarvitz woman. She stood and smiled at the guard.

"You can wait outside, Underwood. I'll take him from here." The guard nodded and went out, the doors sliding shut behind him. Mr. Puffin settled on the table, making himself comfortable.

"Sit," The woman instructed Emil, indicating a chair on the right. She sat down as well. "You're wondering why I invited you here today."

"Pretty much." Emil said awkwardly. "So, why am I here, then?"

She leaned forward and smiled. "It's because you have an amazing ability." Emil blinked at her in surprise as she slid a folder to her and opened it. "It says in your file that you can understand and communicate with animals, is that correct?" She glanced at Mr. Puffin, then looked back to Emil.

"How did you know that?" He was frozen in his seat. "Where am I?"

"This is both a window company and a place that helps people like you. And your brother."

"You know about him too?"

Ms. Tarvitz nodded. "I know about your whole family. We've been watching you two for quite a while, but haven't had the proper openings to take you in. You're also living further than we usually recruit."

"You want to...recruit me?"

"I want you to help us. Your brother has just embarked on a dangerous mission. We would like you to stop him." She leaned back and got another folder. "Your brother has the ability to influence actions and thoughts of others."

"What mission is he going on? Why is it dangerous?" His hand tightened on his phone. His brother still hadn't texted back.

"We had one of our members go...rogue awhile back. We've been attempting to track her down, but it's nearly impossible. She killed two people, and a man is looking for revenge. Your brother has agreed to help this man with revenge." Another folder is slid over to Emil. He opens it slowly. A blonde girl is on the main picture.

"She can create magic circles, which can do a variety of things. The man who wants to kill her," Another folder, this time with a man, his hair styled wildly. "Can summon weapons out of midair."

"How am I supposed to help? I don't have a freaky power like that." Mr. Puffin hopped over to him and pecked at the folders.

"You can be our spy. Just follow them, and report back to us. You'll have a partner, of course." She got up and went to the door. On the other side was the guard from before, but there was also a boy around Emil's age, wearing sunglasses, a black shirt, and dark jeans. He stepped into the room silently, the doors closing again.

"This is Leon. I'm sure you'll find his power good enough to fight off anybody who messes with you two."

Emil watched Leon, but he just stood there silently, not even removing his glasses.

"Now, follow your brother. Leon will help you capture all of them."

* * *

 **A/N: Character names in case you're confused:**

 **Lukas = Norway**  
 **Matthias = Denmark**  
 **Berwald = Sweden**  
 **Tino = Finland**  
 **Emil = Iceland**  
 **Leon = Hong Kong**

 **Any other characters, so far, do not have a country counterpart. In this story I have made Berwald a brother to Matthias. Lukas and Emil are also brothers.**


End file.
